Hello and Not Goodbye
by Huddyalways-24-BK-MA
Summary: Okay, so it's not a oneshot anymore! I was planning on writing a BK fic when the season ended but you guys liked this one, so I'll continue it! Enjoy the next chapter! R&R Please!
1. Karen's Realization

**Here's a little something I cooked up in about an hour or so! Hope ya like it, please review! **

Karen checked her cellphone for the hundreth time in less than an hour to see if there was a call from her husband, but of course there wasn't. She got up from her desk were she had spent this hour staring at her wedding photo. A time where they had both been so very happy, together, they had been so happy together. That's where it struck Karen that the whole point and result of their happiness was being together. Over the course of the day she had expressed to Bill how much she missed him, but why would she say it so much and not express it in a better way, than, "I miss you so much."? She realized that through every single phone call they had shared this day, not once had a call ended with an "I love you," or anything close. She didn't like that, at home before she had left to take on her new job in Washington, they had always expressed their love for each other, each time one entered a room. Karen wanted to scream, or just yell to let something out but she couldn't, not in her office, it would be too loud. She kept her anger inside, her anger toward Wayne for ever giving her this job, Tom for making most of her day a living Hell, Reed Pollack for being the largest weasel she had ever met (even beating out Miles for the spot), the Department of Justice for forcing her to fire Bill for no reason other than the fact that they wanted to sift blame, the citizens who insisted in having someone to blame other than the terrorists themselves, and of course, the person with all the blame, herself! She hated what she had just done, and her actually believeing Bill would understand? He was the most understanding and kind man she had ever met, but even this was something he couldn't accept, I mean she wouldn't accet something like this herself. She imaged what it must of been like to not only get fired, but to get fired by his own wife? She shuttered at the thought, how could she have done that? That's where it truly hit her, she was done! No more Washington, Karen wanted to be back in Los Angeles with her husband and friends.

Karen left her office and walked down to the Oval Office where she would find a not to busy at the moment Daniels.

"Karen, what do you need?" he asked, slightly destracted, for he had been thinking of his current operation involving Lisa Miller.

"Sir, I'm her to tell you I'm resigning," she outwardly put with no hesitation like the first time.

Daniels eyed her for a moment before pointing out, "again?"

"Yes sir, only this time its for real."

"Are you sure about that?" he inquired.

"Yes, I need to go home, I'm not saying I want to, I'm saying I need to."

Daniels sat in silence once more while Karen stared strait at him. "Okay, then I guess you should go home, I understand Karen. These past months must have been very hard for you, I accept your resignation and wish you the best of luck."

"Thank you sir," she said. They shook hands and she walked out. Karen was in her office packing everything up. News traveled fast of her resignation and she soon found Tom at her door.

"You can come in Tom."

He entered akwardly, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Daniels asked me the same thing, and yes I am." She finished put the last thing into her bag, and gather her briefcase and purse.

"Okay, then good bye, despite everything, it really has been a pleasure working with you Karen," he stuck out his hand as Daniels had.

"Same to you Tom," she smiled slightly and shook his hand.

"Do you want me to call you if Wayne wakes up?" Tom asked as she exited the room.

"That would be nice, thank you." Karen walked out of the Whitehouse and took a cab to her hotel. After packing all her things she took the same cab to the airport. She decided to fly back to L.A. in time for noon, Bill would be home, and maybe without the thousands of miles between them, they could talk freely as before. Within hours the plane desended at the airport in L.A. She took yet another cab to her own adress this time. After gathering all of her things out of the cab, she was left alone just staring at her own home. She drew a great smile at it's sight. She quickly went to the door and pulled her key out of her purse. After unlocking it, she opened the fine wood door and went inside. Once in the house she set her luggage down in the entrance way and now took in the inside of her home. After a couple of minutes, she decided to find Bill, because she couldn't stand being in the same house as him and not be looking at his sweet face. She walked up the beautifully carved wood stairs and into their bedroom where Bill was sitting on their bed staring at the mirror that hung on the side oppisite the door. He was in disbelief when him beautiful wife's figure appeared in the mirror behind his own figure. He turned and realized it was actually her.

"Karen! Oh my God!" he was at loss for any other words.

"Hi honey," she said giving him a sweet smile. He walked over and embraced her in the largest hug ever, which lastest for several minutes. It was only broken when she began to cry. "I'm sorry," she sobbed.

"Sweetheart, don't be, it's not your fault," he insisted and kissed her on the forehead.

"Yes it is, I shouldn't have fired you!"

"I don't care," he said.

"Yes you do, Bill you care so much about your job!"

"As long as you're right here, I don't," he exclaimed. Karen shed her last tear and her and Bill kissed.

"Why'd you leave hun?" he finally asked her as they were seated on the bed.

"Before I talked to you, I asked Tom what I should do, and he said something that just hit me. He said if I wanted to stamd shoulder to shoulder with my husband than that was my call," she informed him, "and I thought, well isn't that the point of a marriage? I thought it was kind of the key part." After giving Karen another kiss Bill spoke.

"Well, I'm just glad you're home," he stated. The rest of the day the couple talked, and talked until night fell and they grew extremely tired. And, for the first time in months the two fell asleep in each other's arms.

**The End.**


	2. An Unexspected Visit

**Here's the chapter I promised some of you! I'll just make this my BK fic! I'm so busy with a ballet and tap recital this Sunday so I'll just post little short chapters like this one! Enjoy and please review! **

"I love you," Bill said for what seemed like the thousandth time, as Karen came out of the bathroom after taking a shower.

"Really? I had no clue," Karen played with a great smile on her face. Bill loved that she was smiling and all he could do was smile along with her, which in return made Karen very happy. With the sadness in his voice earlier she believed he would never be happy with her again. "I love you too honey," she added. It was a new day, and they had no obligations other than those to each other. Karen gave Bill a kiss and went back to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

"I'll be downstairs," he informed her.

"Okay," she replied. Bill went down to the kitchen when his door bell rang.

"I got it!" he called to his wife. He opened the door and to his amazement it was Jack that stood behind it. "Jack, hi." he said shocked.

"Hi, I just need someone to talk to," Jack stated. Bill invited him in and he requested him to sit down at the kitchen table.

"If you'll excuse me for ine moment Jack, I'm just going to tell my wife you're here," he said. Jack looked really confused. Bill had not realized out of the previous day's events along with the fact that Jack had showed up at his house to talk to him, that Jack did not know he was even married.

"Wife?" he asked.

"Oh, sorry Jack, I guess I forgot to tell you," Bill exclaimed. Before he could say anything else Karen had came downstairs and was entering the kitchen. "Jack, you know my wife, Karen Hayes." Jack remained in the same spot for a moment with the same expression on his face. Karen had stopped in her tracks when she saw Jack Bauer sitting in her kitchen.

"Hello Jack," she said. Jack finally got up and shook hands with Karen.

"Hi Karen, it's good to see you again," he said.

"Karen, Jack was just here to talk to me," Bill informed her.

"Oh, I'll leave then," she said looking from Bill to Jack.

"No, I'd like to talk to you as well, I just didn't know you were well, here," he insisted her to stay.

"Okay then," she gave him an encourging smile and sat down. Bill poured the three of them coffee and sat down at the table as well.


	3. We're Always Here For You

**Here's another short little chapter! Enjoy and you know how much I love reviews! **

"Heller actually said that to you?" Bill asked Jack in astonishment. He couldn't beilieve everything Jack had just told him, how out of control CTU had gotten after he had left.

"Yeah," Jack looked into his coffee with sadness. While Jack was looking down, Karen and Bill shared a look of sympathy for Jack.

"I'm so sorry Jack, with everything you've delt with already. You've done so much good in the past, and even yesterday you did so much," Karen stated.

"I've done a lot of bad things in the past as well Karen. Heller's right though, it is like I'm cursed," Jack said, "and no one talks to me anymore."

"We're talking to your right now Jack, and more importantly, listening," Bill informed him. Jack's face wore the expression of sadness, hopelessness, and just of being tired and worn down.

"I know, and I'm so grateful. But, maybe you guys should just ignore me as well, It seems to work out better for everyone else!" Jack's voice shared the hopelessness it had before. Bill became very saddened in Jack's words and tone. Karen saw this on her husband's face, the same expression he had used when he found out the Chinese had gotten ahold of Jack.

"We're not going anywhere," Karen told Jack, "no matter what, Bill and I will always be here if you need someone to talk to." She gave Jack another encouraging smile, a long with Bill which made him perk up a bit.

"Yeah, I don't care how much you try to annoy us either, we're helping you whether you like it or not!" Bill joked with a grin, lightening the mood a little when Jack let out a small laugh as well.

"Well, i just don't know what's I'm going to do about Audrey, I can't just give up on her!"Jack exclaimed.

"I think we can help there," Karen stated with a bit of a sly smile.

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

"We're friends with Audrey, maybe we could get Heller to let us talk to her, and maybe it would help for her to see more familiar faces. If we help her she might remember something, I'm sure when she starts remembering things Jack, you will be one of those first things," Karen said.

"If. If she starts remembering things," Jack added in another depressing tone.

"Jack, you have be positive. If you're negitive nothing's going to happen!" Bill informed him. He patted Jack on the back.

"I don't get how I can be positive when there's nothing positive in my life," Jack said.

"Sure there is," Bill said.

"What?" Jack challenged more than asked.

"You still have people who care about you Jack," Bill told him. At that moment Jack realized BIll was right, he did. Chloe had insisted on talking to him, but he had been a jerk to her, and for what? She had tried explaining why she had told Bill of his plan but he wouldn't let her. Then there was the two people sitting at this table, they cared for him enough not to abbandon him. They were listening to him, and trying to help him find his answers while searching for their own at the same time. He was surrounded by great people who would be happy to help.

They ended their long discussion and Jack hugged both of them and left the Buchanan home.

"Have I told you I love you today?" Bill smiled.

"I'm not sure, have you?" Karen joked.

"I think we could really help him," Bill said.

"Me too," Karen agreed. Then they went about a long day of being together.


	4. News and A Call

**Well, I see promising hopes in the future of Bill&Karen! So enjoy this next chapter! **

Karen hung up the phone.

"Who was that?" Bill asked.

"Chloe, you'll never believe it!" she exclaimed.

"Try me?" Bill asked curiously.

"Chloe's pregnant!" announced Karen with an enormous grin.

"Aw, that's wonderful," Bill expressed, "I'll have to tell her and Morris congratulations next time I see them." He had sat down on the couch reading the paper he hadn't had time to read this morning. It was mid-afternoon and he and Karen had been trying to get ahold of James Heller. With no luck what-so-ever, they had given up until a later hour.

"I'm happy for them, she said they'd been having some hard times, but most of it was with Morris being abducted and being forced to arm the nukes," Karen explained, "she said that it was probably just the stress of the day though."

"Yeah, Morris came into my office about an hour before I left asking if he could be transfered out of communications," Bill informed her.

"Really?" Karen spectulated.

"Yes, I was just as surprised at that moment," he stated.

"Have you talked to Nadia or anyone else at CTU yet?" asked Karen.

"No, only Jack," Bill said, "why have you?"

"Just Chloe, but she said that a friend had been killed in the Chinese's raid," Karen said uneasily.

"What friend?" Bill asked.

"Milo Pressman," she stated. Bill couldn't believe it, no one had bothered to tell him they had lost Milo.

"Just Milo?" Bill inquired, now worried that maybe there were more people, that he just hadn't been told about.

"Besides security guards, yeah," she answered. She gave Bill an encouraging look, the same one she had given to Jack the other night.

"Why just Milo?" he asked.

"I don't know," Karen said. Bill couldn't think of what else to say on this matter. Karen gave him a hug and a kiss because, she knew he was upset and confused.

They had gone about their business all day uninterupted. Bill was taking Karen to dinner at their favorite restraunt, before they were due to leave, the phone rang and it was Heller/

Bill answered this time, since Karen was getting ready for dinner. "Hello?"

"Bill, it's James, I heard you and Karen were trying to get ahold of me," he said as if it weren't apparent he had been ignoring the Buchanans.

"Yes," started Bill, setting the aside the fact that acted like Bill were nieve, "we wanted to know how Audrey was doing?"

"Okay I guess, Chloe O'Brian stopped by to see her today," Heller informed Bill, "I think it best to let Audrey speak with her closest friends to start with, maybe help her remember."

"I agree, could be of great help," Bill said keeping the conversation friendly.

"Yes," Heller said.

"Well, Karen and I would like to know if we could speak to her soon?" Bill held his breath.

"Since you guys are a couple of her friends, I guess it would be okay," he stated.

"Okay thanks, I'll call you back tomorrow then, bye," Bill said happily.

"Okay by Bill," he ended with, and the two men hung up. Karen about a mintue later came downstairs ready to go.

"Who was it?" she inquired.

"I'll tell you at dinner," he said and they left their house.

**The dinner part will come next chapter! Review please! hehe**


	5. Dinner With A Twist

**Sorry 4 such a long wait! Well here ya go! R&R please?**

"So it was Heller," Karen confirmed. Bill and her had just taken their seats in the restraunt.

"Yes," Bill answered.

"He called us back?" Karen asked just to be sure.

"Yes, I know it shocked me too," Bill stated. The waitor came over and poured them some wine. Bill thanked the waitor then him and his wife got back to the conversation.

"So what'd he say?" she questioned.

"I told him about speaking to Audrey and he agreed," Bill informed her.

"So we can talk to her?" she asked.

"Yes, but we have t be careful that we don't mention Jack yet," Bill warned.

"Yeah, we better let that situation smooth itself out," Karen agreed. Bill nodded and took a sip of wine.

"So when should we go see her?" Bill inquired.

"Oh, I don't know, with our such bust schedules lately," Karen replied sarcastically.

"Ha, very funny," he said, "but seriously when?"

"How about Saturday, it's Thursday so that gives Heller a day notice if we call him tomorrow."

"Okay, I did tell him I'd call tomorrow."

"Good, then Saturday it is," she said. They then ordered their dinner, and within fifteen minutes their meals came. They began to eat.

"So, what do you have going on next Tuesday?" Bill asked, slightly joking.

"I don't know, do you have something planned, because I could clear my schedule," she continued to joke.

"Yeah, I booked us a trip to Paris," Bill said. Karen set her fork down.

"Okay, well then," she said a little taken a back.

"So, is that a yes?" Bill asked with a smile.

"Yes Bill, but how come you didn't tell me about it?" Karen inquired.

"I wanted it to be a surpise," he explained, "I thought it'd be best to get out of the country for a week or so."

"That sounds great," Karen said, smiling at her husband.

"So Audrey Saturday, and Paris Tuesday," Bill confirmed.

"Okay then," Karen agreed.

"To getting on with our lives," Bill stated raising his glass.

"To getting on with our lives together," Karen replied raising her glass as well.

**4 20 Long Months readers, update is Friday! **


	6. What About Audrey?

**Wow!! Been 4 ever since an updated I've been really sad lately, family stuff, and my technical difficulties of course! So here, please R&R and as always enjoy!**

"Ready?" Bill asked Karen.

"No," she answered boldly.

"Now?" he asked again.

"I guess," Karen said. It was ten in the morning and they were parked outside James Heller's home. They didn't know what to ecspect, niether Bill or Karen had seen let alone spoken to Audrey yet. The last time each had seen her it was shortly after their wedding, she'd told them that it was up to her now if no one was going to help. They had asked her what she was planning on doing but she wouldn't give a single detail. A couple days later they had recieved a phone call from Heller asking why Audrey was doing this. The couple had told him they didn't have a clue as to what he was talking about. He informed them that Audrey had left him a letter explaining she was on her way to China, she was getting Jack back on her own terms, and she wasn't coming back until they both came back together. Of course Bill and Karen were just as much surprised by this as Heller had been, and they told him this, he obviously thought that they had something to do with this since they had been Audrey's main sourse of help when she was looking for Jack in the beginning. Once the government had given up, and refused to do anything else, they were convinced that there was nothing to be done that would get the beloved friend back. Audrey however had apparently had a second plan, one she'd not shared with anyone, not them, Chloe, Curtis, and ecspecially not her father. Now here they were, months later, all they knew was that Audrey wasn't saying a word, nothing, and her condition was remaining the same, both Bill and Karen were scared as to whether Audrey Raines would even remember who they were.

They got of their car. Bill grabbed Karen's hand, "I'm sure it will be fine, at least she's not dead right, remember how aweful we felt at that thought?"

Karen did remember, Bill and her had been thinking the same thing, she was frightened by the thought of nothing being different, she didn't want either of them to have the same feelings they had had when they'd found out she'd died in that fake car crash. "I thought this would be easier."

"Yeah I know," Bill said. They finally made their way toward the door. Bill released Karen's hand and gently knocked on it. Moments later James Heller came tro the door, he opened it.

"Bill, Karen, I'm glad you guys could come," he said. He ushered them in.

The house was very neat, no doubt containing the work of a maid. Heller intsructed them to have a seat when all three had reached the living room. They did so, both Bill and Karen on the couch and Heller on the chair oppisite.

"So how have you been?" Bill asked Heller, he decided to start some sort of conversation, given no one had said much of anything.

"Well, things are hard, but I'm trying to work through them," he said.

"It's all you can do," Bill replied. Again there was silence in the room, Bill slowly looked from Heller to his wife, they were both looking down.

"I think I owe the two of you an apology," Heller finally stated. This brought Karen out of her own thoughts.

"What for?" Bill inquired he hadn't been ecspected this.

"For not answering your guy's call sooner," he answered.

"It's okay," Karen lied.

"No, it's not," Heller said.

"We knew you were busy," Bill said, he like Karen was playing naive.

"No, I was avoiding your calls. I know it's awful, I don't know what got into me," Heller admitted.

"You were just trying to do what was best for Audrey," Karen gave him an excuse.

Heller continued to shake his head, "no, it would have been better for me to answer your calls, you two and Chloe O'Brian were all Audrey had when I was in Washington."

"Still, we don't blame you for any hostility, we know your position on Jack, you had no reason to trust us either," Bill stated strongly, he knew Heller was going to object to that statement.

"You guys don't have to be kind to me, and I do trust you, you're a couple of the best agents this country has had in a long time, it's sad that the government has lost two people so loyal to the constitution, and so loyal to what the country's upposed to stand for," he said boldly. Both Bill and Karen sighed.

"Well, I guess we accept your apology then," Bill said, Karen was being very still and silent he thought it best he speak on both their behalf at the moment.

"Okay then," Heller said, giving them a warm smile. "Well, you certainly didn't come her to talk about my problems, I'll take you to Audrey."

Bill looked at Karen, he could tell her heart was racing. Heller got up and the two followed. Again Bill grabbed his wife's hand as they followed the former secretary of defense. He knocked and opened a door in the hallway, "Audrey honey, I have some people here to see you."

Bill and Karen walked in, Heller hadn't told them anything about how she was doing, would she say anything? Would she even recongnize who they were? Karen braced herself, she still had a hold of her husband's hand. Bill looked at Audrey, this was a moment for him now, like Karen's shock had hit before they walked in the house, Bill's was hitting him now. Was it still their friend Audrey Raines? Then...

**Oh sorry forgot I have Mythology homework, gotta go! haha Don't worry there'll be another update soon enough! Thanx for all who read!**


	7. Significance

**Okay, because I am such a nice person, my mean and evil trick is over, sorry! So lets all forgive your good friend (Me if the hint wasn't given enough) with a nice Fanfiction type hug! Of course I mean another chapter! Here and again sorry, I just couldn't stop myself! hehe R&R please I beg you! I send smiles! lots of smiles!**

"I think I know you," Audrey said looking from Karen to Bill. Her eyes looked lost, Karen maintained some sort attitude of happiness on the outside, while on the inside she'd felt as if someone had punched her soul. Poor Audrey, that's all she could think.

Bill was trying his hardest to think on the positive side, as long as he didn't look at Audrey's face, he could reach a level of relief. At least she'd said something, she hadn't said their names, but at least she'd remembered something about them.

"Honey this is-" Bill raised his hand to stop Heller. He wanted to explain to Audrey who he was himself.

"I'm Bill Buchanan, we used to work together," he said. "And this is my wife Karen, you were friends with her too."

Karen stepped forward and gave Audrey an encouraging smile, "hi Audrey."

Audrey looked a little puzzled and a little overwelmed, "I remember something."

Heller stared at his daughter, he having spent the longest amount of time with her since she'd gotten back, knew that recongnizing Bill and Karen was a good thing, no matter how strong the recognization was. He smiled at her when she looked at him just as Karen had done. She had within a while remembered who her father was, Heller hoped that with time of seeing them, Audrey would also remember her friends, the people she had always turned to for help, and the ones that would always try their hardest to offer that help to their fullest. "That's good Audrey."

The expression she gave to him, didn't look too sure of that. Bill and Karen glanced at each other, they still didn't know what this meant, it was going to take more than a day to get things back to a reasonable level.

"Do you remember anything about us at all?" Karen stepped in.

Audrey's eyebrows read of deep thought as her mouth grew small. She ws trying her hardest to think when she was struck with something, "I think you were my boss or something like that, no, maybe you both were."

Heller responded to this, while Karen looked over to Bill, she was smiling at him, he returned it. Heller's response however, was much different. "No honey only Bill was boss where you were working."

"No she's sort of right," Bill informed him.

"How?" Heller was the confused one now.

"The day everything happened with Logan, I took over as head of CTU when it lost it's people," Karen explained to Heller looking to Bill for support and he nodded at Heller.

"Oh, well then you're right Audrey," he said to his daughter. He was shocked, this was the most progress Audrey'd made in only less than fifteen minutes, he wasn't even sure she'd made this much progress with any other people she'd seen yet in a twenty-four hour period.

Audrey nodded her head, she still wouldn't smile though. Karen smiled at her hoping something would happen, for a moment it didn't but Bill moved closer to his wife and smiled at Audrey as well. As she looked up at them she remembered something, she just couldn't put it all together, it was too scrambled. Whatever it was, it was bringing a smile across her face, all Audrey wanted now was to put whatever these very important pieces were, together.

"We're going to go then, give you some time to thing," Bill said, he knew something was in Audrey, he knew that something must of brought the smile out of her, what had it been. He thought that maybe time was the key, it usually was. "We can come back tomorrow if you'd like," he suggested.

Although Audrey's smile had faded she still knew there was something about these two people, something she couldn't place but there was something. She nodded rapidly and looked at her father.

"That would be very nice," he said, giving the okay.

"We'll see you tomorrow then," Karen stated as they goodbyed Audrey til the following day. Heller informed her that he'd be back in, in a second.

Once they were in the living room once more he faced the two, "that was amazing! You guys have no idea."

"Good," Bill said, "I hope she starts remembering things faster now."

"Me too," Karen added.

"I agree also, thank you so much, we'll see you tomorrow then." He smiled again, and showed them out.

Bill and Karen quickly walked back to their car, Bill placed the key in the ignition, but nuglucted to turn it on. Bill looked over at Karen who was fidgeting with her hands. He placed his hand on her left shoulder and gently slid it over to her right shoulder.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

She slowly looked up at him, she was taking all she could out of this bit of comfort. "I'm actually quite calmed." She smiled, this time it was a soft smile, this kind of smile on Karen was Bill's favorite, it glowed of significance. He hadn't seen this smile from Karen in such a long time. He kissed her on the forehead, staying within the softness of the moment. He finally turned the car on and began to drive back to their home. The truth was obvious, visiting Audrey had helped the friendship between her and the couple, as well as helped the rehabilitation of Audrey. But, this had also helped get the Buchanan's set, they had realized that helping Audrey would also get them back were they'd been before, back to where they had began, where they'd been hoping to get to.


	8. Next StopParis

**Hi guys!! **

**This is my 1000 posts celebration update sorry BK friends for a delay! **

**So please R&R sorry for long absense! I'm hoping another update comes of this fic this week, I have some cool ideas! So stay tuned sorry if this is short. **

"That was Jack," Bill told Karen as he walked into the living room where she was quietly reading the paper.

Before, reading most of the news was boring considering she had been on the front line of most of it. People would think she'd miss knowing all the inside information like she once had, but Karen couldn't be happier without the stress of dealing with those situations.

"Did you tell him how yesterday went?" Karen asked.

"Yes, he seemed relieved, but a little troubled," Bill informed her.

"It should be Jack she's remembering Bill," Karen informed him.

Bill sat down next to her and wrapped an arm around her, "I know that. We just somehow have to get Heller to see that."

"How? Sure he apologized, but that was to us, nothing about Jack. We mention Jack and we'll probably never see Audrey again either," she said.

"Well that hasn't happened yet, we'll go there today, then go to Paris have a great time and figure this out when we get back," Bill explained the plan to her.

Karen smiled, _for working at CTU he still has a child like view on things somethings_, she thought.

"What?" Bill asked.

"Nothing," Karen replied still with the smile. Bill kissed her on the forehead.

24

"I don't think we made as much progress today," Bill said to Karen and Heller. They had just finished visiting with Audrey.

"Each day is different," Heller stated.

"Well, we'll be heading off to Paris Tuesday so we'll probably be busy packing and getting ready this next two days. We'll come see her as soon as we get back though," Bill informed Heller.

"Paris? What for?" Heller inquired.

"Just to get away from the US for a little bit," Bill answered honestly.

"I understand that. I should have taken a trip out of the country years ago, I guess I was too busy with work, too bad now. So how long are you guys going to be gone?"

"About a week or so," Bill continued answering the questions.

Karen smiled at the fact that Heller was asking just out of interest. She thought maybe they were not only making a tiny bit of progress with Audrey, but with her father too. _Hopefully it will be safe enough to bring up Jack soon_, she thought. Bill glanced at the expression change on his wifes face.

"I won't keep you then," he told the couple. Then smiled again and shook hands.

When they got back in the car and pulled out of the driveway Bill laughed.

This random moment made Karen laugh before saying, "what's so funny spasy?"

"Why'd you smile when I was talking to Heller?" he asked curiously.

"Why do you analyze every single thing I do?" she replied.

"It's my job!" he spat. "Why'd you smile?"

"No particular reason," she said smugly turning to look out the window with her arms crossed. She didn't care if Bill knew what she'd been thinking, she just thought it was a prime moment to tease her husband.

"You know that's going to drive me nuts, these things always do," he told her.

She smirked.

"And you don't care do you?"

"Why do you think I'm not telling you?" she pointed out.

"It hurts me when you are personally mean to me for no reason," he said with a fake sob.

Karen grinned endlessly, "as I've pointed out many times, you're crazy!"

Now Bill laughed again, "and as I've pointed out many times, you married me, so what's that say about you?"

"Whatever," she retaliated.

"Always the whatever comes last," he pointed out.

"Okay that's enough," Karen smiled.

"Fine. Let's just think about Paris."

"Sounds good my insane Husband."

"Yes it does my _equally_ insane wife."

They again laughed.

**Review please! Hugs to all! lol. **


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